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Topic: Is there a place here for modified ex army Land Rovers? (Read 42609 times)

Went up the bush yesterday to cut some firewood and managed to clip a tree stump with the front bumper/brushbar while trying to get around a really tight little bend in the track. Luckily I was only idling around it in 1st low range when I clipped it.

Must have hit it on an odd angle, for it folded the bumper bar in a way that's a bit surprising for the speed it was going.

Bye bye nicely powdercoated bumper...

Will be on the hunt for a replacement in another few months.

Aside from that, it was another good opportunity to give the 109 and No.5 trailer a workout.

Had to reverse up a really tight and windy track for about 3-4 hundred yards, and I really like the way the No.5 tracks. It's very predictable and surprisingly easy to reverse.

I noticed how the 4x home made jerry can holders, welded to the sides, made lining it up a breeze. I was initially going to shanghai those and run the trailer as per standard, devoid of all that sort of stuff, but after seeing how well they work as guides, I think I'll now source 4x proper ones.

Can't complain with the performance of both the 109 and the trailer, even when fully loaded it just cruised and never lost but a few kph on the really big hills.

When loaded I was sometimes taking it to 110-115 kph before going into overdrive, whereas I normally shift into overdrive at about 100 kph when empty. It does love the weight though.

All in all it was quite a pleasant little adventure...except for the loss of the bumper bar.

I scored the door skins from a bloke who had them stored in his garage for a number of years.

The story goes that his wife imported them from UK as a gift, but he never fitted them as he was planning to rebuild his vehicle at some point, thus as it sometimes happens, the rebuild never manifested and he ended up getting rid of it.

I've been on the internet the whole time, but have been quite busy, rarely got a chance to look in here.

While I had to go do some things abroad, I really didn't want to come back here just yet....but oh well, that's the way it goes.

I've still done nothing to the 109 since ages before I left, but I'm starting to get the bug back.

Maybe the bright idea to get back into it stems from a little hassle that cropped up a couple of weeks ago...

I was coming off a freeway pretty quickly and was looking to start dropping down gears when the clutch pedal locked up on me, so yeah, that kind of got my attention.

When I built it, I added an adjustable clutch rod, made by Dellow Automotive, a great bit of gear. Unfortunately, when I did the clutch bleed, I adjusted the rod and didn't put any Loctite on the thread of the little locking nut....I didn't add it as I thought it may need to be adjusted once the vehicle was driving again, so left it...then after I got it fired up and driving, I forgot all about revisiting that chore.

Thus it must have worked loose and made its way, along with the ball part, down to the end of the thread, up against the slave cylinder. The part of the rod that was extended must have begun hitting up against the front jackshaft yoke....and then the rod somehow got bent and rendered useless.

After sussing out what was wrong I ordered a new one and slipped it in a couple of days ago....this time with Loctite on the thread.

I have lots to do in order to get it back up to scratch, like installing the parabolics in the front, replacing all the driveshaft bolts, install a 2 speed wiper motor, get new windscreens, get a new set of wiper arms. Get rims for the No5 trailer...

Get tyres sorted...do the brakes...rebuild the No5...goes on and on...feel like taking a nap just thinking about it...

Had to do a bit of a milk run the other day, all over the place in the 40+ degree temps and the first thing I noticed was that the blind which covers the radiator grille, was not allowing enough air through into the cooling system, so much so, that the digital water pump and thermo fan controller started "tripping" into safe mode and staying there.

Rather than try to remove the blind from the grille, I just undid the 4x screws and removed the grille for the day. That solved the problem. Temp remained constant from that point on, even in the bumper to bumper traffic where I seemed to be stuck for a couple of hours.

Thus, the experiment continues with the cooling system...

It works great, but I had to install the blind so as to keep the heat contained at highway speeds, where it was too efficient to maintain a constant temp, and this is the first time that it hasn't liked it when the heat gets above 40 degrees with the blind on.

Thinking I need to design a better blind....or figure out another way to regulate the air flow into the radiator. I'll have to think on it some more...

Noticed the electric fuel pump was making lots of noise too, and three times when climbing a steep hill the vehicle started bucking, felt like lack of fuel to me.

Will have to think on that one too, see if I can isolate the actual cause and overcome it. That's the first time it's ever done that. I've heard the fuel pump get noisy on hot days, but it hasn't ever affected performance.

I seem to be developing a bit of a love hate relationship with the Detroit Locker too, the tyre wear is annoying me. It's wearing down the tyres and about double the rate as standard...

While the AYG8108's appeal due to the wider track and possible turning circle advantage of the leaf sprung 109, I'd have to modify the mudguards on the No 5 trailer if I went that way. The Army got away with it but knowing how petty some police and RTA blokes can be, I reason that I'm probably better to rectify the problem and get it back into spec, not to mention mirroring the track difference between the vehicle and trailer at the same time.

I'll have to keep an eye out for a pair of 272309 rims now, hopefully already painted matt green to suit the paint already on the trailer.

Tyres on the trailer will be a couple of moderately worn Dunlop Super Grippers, while the tyres on the 109 will now go from Super Gripper to Road Gripper.

I'm hoping the slight change from Super Gripper to Road Gripper will further lessen the road-noise. It's not too bad as is, but I want to see if there's much of a difference.

My younger brother bought my 109 GS after I decided to launch off on another series of adventures.

Did this, did that, basically went off and tried to recapture what I thought were more interesting endeavours, then started realising that Iím not exactly getting any younger and after a wicked health scare which darn near did me in back in 2017, Iíve been kind of restricted from doing much of anything and just spend my time trying to recover my health.

No idea how the 109 is these days as I havenít seen it for years but I decided to buy it back off my brother, sight unseen, and have decided to have a crack at restoring it back to its former glory.

I reside back in Oz now and have arranged to have it transported to my Queensland home in the coming weeks.

Oh well, itíll hopefully give me the incentive to get off my backside and get back into it.

I hope everyone at REMLR are doing well.

Have I lost my mind in returning to a Land Rover hobby? It kind of feels like it.

I might be on the hunt for a front bumper bar and perhaps a lift point, and perhaps a brush bar, not sure yet.

They copped a little whack before I sold it to my brother and shot through, but I believe it copped another whack when my brother parked it at work, nosed up to a cyclone fence and for whatever reason, parked it in gear and upon knocking off, he reached into the cabin and started it up...

Due to the wicked ignition system I installed, it caught immediately and launched forward into the fence...

Due to the Detroit Locker I installed and the torque of the hotted up motor , it apparently wasnít going to let a mere cyclone fence stop it and proceeded to climb the fence.

My brotherís only short and had a bit of difficulty getting at the key during the drama and he reckons that heís lucky it didnít run him over.

I laughed when he told me, but now Iím reflecting on how hard itís going to be to fix up.

Unsure what other carnage itís been subjected to but oh well, it is what it is...

I really donít know why I repurchased it, because as much as I enjoyed the challenge of building it way back then, Iím conscious of my laziness these days and hope I havenít bitten off more than I can chew.

I was told today that there are new air conditioning systems available now that might enable me to install one, coz Iím a sook these days.

I always dismissed fitting one as I reasoned that a supercharger was a higher priority and under bonnet space being so limited, I had to settle for neither, but if what I was told today is true, I might get a decent air con for it.

I should get rid of the Detroit Locker too, it was really annoying skidding the rear tyres everywhere you went.

I canít find information about why itís locked so tight that it chirps the tyres so much, perhaps thatís just the way they are.